Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has invoked Canada’s Emergency Act to bring to order semi-truck drivers’ protests against pandemic restrictions, The Globe and Mail reports. How serious is it? Well, the CBC preempted its continuing coverage of the Winter Olympics to provide live coverage of Trudeau’s announcement invoking the Emergencies Act for the first time in the nation’s history. Canadians take the Winter Games very seriously.
There are two primary situations in Canada (although there are acts occurring in other provinces as well). The ones in Quebec and Ontario are caused by the so-called “Freedom Convoy.” Think of it as “Truckers Against Vaccines.” (It has since morphed into being against masks and other restrictions, too.) Part of the convoy drove to the country’s capital and parked their big rigs in downtown Ottawa near Parliament Hill. The trucks have been joined by all manner of other vehicles and plenty of people as part of a protest. Why? Well, there is a requirement that Canadian commercial truck drivers have to show proof of vaccination when they cross back into Canada. In other words, the government wants to minimize the potential of their bringing more virus back into the country. The other situation is in Windsor, at the Ambassador Bridge, which was blocked for six days by truckers and their associates; usually some 10,000 cross the bridge per day, so this had a big economic impact, to say nothing of causing more than minor inconvenience to the business owners and travelers from both sides of the border.
Trudeau said in a news conference, “It is now clear that there are serious challenges to law enforcement's ability to effectively enforce the law." So, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will be able to join the provincial and local police forces who are trying to restore order. In addition, the government is requiring that crowdfunding platforms, which many protestors have turned to, register with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said “We are making these changes because we know that these platforms are being used to support illegal blockade and illegal activity, which is damaging the Canadian economy.”
Note: This is serious stuff. Some are saying more should have been done earlier, which presumably means the police being more forceful in their response to the blockades. Then, of course, there would have been an issue with that.
But one thing that Freeland said is probably going to do more than any number of law enforcement personnel: “We are today serving notice: if your truck is being used in these protests, your corporate accounts will be frozen. The insurance on your vehicle will be suspended.”
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Trump Bean-Counters Take it All Back
What do you say when your own long time accounting firm, Mazars USA, says it can no longer stand behind 2011-20 financial statements it compiled based on information provided by the Trump Organization? If you’re former President Donald J. Trump, you say the firm’s withdrawal of support, which came in a letter to New York Attorney General Letitia James February 9, according to The New York Times, is politically motivated.
Never mind that the letter retracts the firm’s “statements of financial condition” for the decade that includes the Trump Organization’s development of the Trump International Hotel Washington D.C., in the Old Post Office building, “just minutes from the White House” according to its website, developed during Mazars’ decade time frame. The Trump Organization is the subject of a civil case in which it is alleged to have artificially inflated the values of its properties for favorable loan terms, and a criminal investigation, both in New York State. The disclosure of Mazars’ “instrument to retract” came in a New York AG disclosure Monday by James, who hopes to question Trump and two of his children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka.
Note: For about seven years now, Trump has managed to convince about 30% of American voters that he is the constant victim of a political witch hunt. Keeping the banking industry on his side – loyal Trump Organization lender Deutsche Bank notwithstanding – is not going to be as easy. Bottom line is that while the civil and criminal cases may affect Trump’s ability to run for president in 2024, it will not have much of an effect on the political fortunes of his congressional candidate picks for this year’s midterms.
--Gary S. Vasilash, Todd Lassa and Nic Woods
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